The present invention is concerned with flexible conductive strips and more particularly, conductive lighting strips which can be used for display cases, shelves and other areas where an array of lighting elements may follow irregular contours or borders.
Typically, display case shelving has been illuminated by affixing a lighting fixture such as a fluorescent bulb or a line of incandescent bulbs within a reflective shield to the front underside of a top shelf. Such lighting sources, however, do not provide optimum illumination. In fact, they tend to distort colors as compared to their appearance in natural sunlight, and, when incandescent lamps are used, they tend to be wasteful of power. Because color is an important feature of most items placed in a display case, it is preferable that more natural illumination be provided.
Moreover, most available lighting fixtures are relatively bulky or are of the fluorescent type which do not provide the proper lighting for the display of most objects. A small, flexible, low voltage illumination strip would be most desirable for such diplay case applications.
Strip lighting which follows the contours of an architectural feature, or which outlines and illuminates special features of a structure, is typically created using conventional wiring which includes a plurality of lamp sockets spaced at desired intervals. "Christmas tree" lighting is an example of this variety. Such strip lighting is typically wired in series and if one bulb fails the whole strip fails through an open circuit. A painstaking bulb by bulb inspection is then required to find the failed unit or units. Parallel wiring, on the other hand, would be preferable, since burnt out bulbs can be quickly located and replaced. However, heavier gauge wiring is necessary because the current that must be supplied in a parallel circuit is equal to the product of the current in one lamp times the number of lamps.
The strip lighting employed in the prior art is generally unattractive and not easily fastened in place. Further, conventional, small gauge wiring necessary for an inconspicuous installation can have relatively high resistivity over long runs which adversely affects the brightness that is available. What is required, therefore, is strip lighting that can be both flexible and of low resistivity. Further, it should lend itself to the parallel wiring of the component lighting elements with the required high conductivity and which can be easily concealed or obscured from view.